Departures of note

César Oiticica was a Brazilian artist, architect and curator, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1939. He began studying painting in 1954 at Ivan Serpa's free painting course at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, and in 1957 briefly substituted for Serpa as a teacher. As a member of Grupo Frente and the Concretist movement, he produced abstract paintings with flat geometric forms arranged to create a sense of movement in two-dimensional space.

Alongside his artistic production, Oiticica built a career in architecture. In his later years he returned to making art, and in 2012 his works were included in the exhibition 'Ivan Serpa: Pioneering Abstraction in Brazil' at the Dickinson Roundell gallery in New York.

For nearly four decades, Oiticica devoted himself to preserving and promoting the work of his brother, the celebrated artist Hélio Oiticica. He served as director of the Projeto Hélio Oiticica in Rio de Janeiro and curated exhibitions dedicated to the family's artistic output, including 'José Oiticica Filho: Fotografia e Invenção' (2007) and 'Hélio Oiticica: Penetráveis' (2008).